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Four Arts’ exhibition shows Churchill to be ‘a man for all seasons’

Frank Salisbury painted this portrait of Winston Churchill, titled Blood Sweat and Tears, in 1943. The painting was based on Yousuf Karsh’s 1941 photograph. Karsh snapped the photograph immediately after he had plucked the cigar Churchill was smoking from his mouth. Collection: David & Jillian Gilmour

Posted: 9:00 a.m. Thursday, December 07, 2017

Winston Churchill was 40 in 1915 when he resigned in disgrace as Britain’s First Lord of the Admiralty after the failure of his disastrous attack on Gallipoli. He took up painting to relieve his boredom and depression.

This photograph of Winston Churchill painting in the 1930s at The Chateau St. Georges-Motel, home of his friends Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan and her husband, Jaques, was published in 1946 in Life magazine. National Churchill Museum, Fulton, Mo.

This photograph of Winston Churchill painting in the 1930s at The Chateau St. Georges-Motel, home of his friends Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan ... read more

Unlike the confidence he exuded in his public life, he approached painting with trepidation. He was staring at the canvas, thoroughly defeated, when Lady Lavery, wife of painter Sir John Lavery, arrived.

“What are you hesitating about?” she inquired and seized the brush to splash several large strokes across the canvas.

“The spell was broken,” Churchill wrote in his book Painting as a Pastime. “The sickly inhibitions rolled away. I seized the largest brush and fell upon my victim with berserk fury. I have never felt awe of the canvas since.”

In Tapestries at Blenheim Winston Churchill highlights the tapestries portraying his ancestor the first Duke of Marlborough’s 1704 military victory. Collection Hawthorne Museum Churchill Heritage Ltd.

In Tapestries at Blenheim Winston Churchill highlights the tapestries portraying his ancestor the first Duke of Marlborough’s 1704 military victory. Collection ... read more

A Man for All Seasons: The Art of Winston Churchill features 27 paintings by Churchill dating from the 1920s to the 1940s, photographs, film clips and Churchill memorabilia. It also includes related sculptures and paintings by other artists, such as a photographic enlargement of Sandys’ Berlin Wall sculpture Breakthrough. The works are on loan from private collections and the National Churchill Museum at Westminster College in Fulton, Mo.

“We explain all the other things he did besides politics,” de Bourbon said. “He was a war-time leader, but he was also an artist, an author and a family man.”

The auction record for a Churchill painting is nearly $2.8 million, set in 2014 at Sotheby’s in London. But for him painting was a way of defeating depression and escaping the pressures of work.

His favorite subjects were landscapes, frequently created during painting holidays in southern France or Marrakesh, and garden scenes. He loved color and was fascinated by the contrast between light and shadow and the play of light on water.

He was self-taught, although he learned from others, such as his painting buddy artist Paul Maze, who had a studio at the Chateau St. Georges-Motel.

The 16th century chateau near Dreux in Normandy was the home of friend Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan and her husband, Jacques, who also owned Casa Alva in Manalapan, another of Churchill’s painting haunts. A photograph of Churchill painting at Casa Alva in 1946 is in the show.

The shadows thrown by the trellis are the main subject of Winston Churchill’s Terrace at Trent Park, which he painted around 1935 at the home of his political colleague and friend Sir Philip Sassoon. Collection of Richard and Barbara Mahoney

The shadows thrown by the trellis are the main subject of Winston Churchill’s Terrace at Trent Park, which he painted around ... read more

During a walk-through of the show, Sandys pointed out dabs of color representing flowers or leaves that made paintings such as On the Var look almost three-dimensional and the bold shadows in works such as Terrace at Trent Park.

On the Var, painted in 1935 in southern France, emphasizes the interplay of light and shadow and reflections on water, two of Winston Churchill’s favorite themes. Collection the Family of the late Julian Sandys Churchill Heritage Ltd.

On the Var, painted in 1935 in southern France, emphasizes the interplay of light and shadow and reflections on water, two ... read more

Still Life of Fruit hung in her parents’ dining room when she was a child. Tapestries at Blenheim offers a glimpse into Churchill’s childhood home.

The Beach at Walmer, created a year before Britain declared war on Germany, is one of the few paintings to depart from Churchill’s favorite subjects. In the painting, a massive canon planted on the beach during the Napoleonic era points past sea bathers toward the coast of France.

Winston Churchill painted The Beach at Walmer around 1938, a year before Great Britain entered World War II. He included himself (far right) in the painting. The work is part of A Man for All Seasons: The Art of Winston Churchill at The Society of the Four Arts. Private Collection Churchill Heritage Ltd.

Winston Churchill painted The Beach at Walmer around 1938, a year before Great Britain entered World War II. He included himself ... read more

“In 1938, Churchill was warning anyone who would listen of the Nazi threat,” said Timothy Riley, director and chief curator of the National Churchill Museum. “He was a member of Parliament but without real power.”

Churchill painted only one painting during the war years, a view of Marrakesh he gave to Franklin Roosevelt.

The show includes oddities such as partially smoked cigars, which Churchill often passed out to admirers; a top hat signed by Churchill, Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin at the Yalta conference in 1945; and Churchill’s only known sculpture — a bust of sculptor Oscar Nemon that Churchill crafted in 1954 as a way of keeping himself occupied while the artist sculpted him. In addition it devotes an entire section to Churchill’s famous “Iron Curtain” speech, which Churchill wrote while he was staying with a friend in Miami Beach.

This top hat signed by Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin at the 1945 Yalta Conference is included in A Man for All Seasons: The Art of Winston Churchill. National Churchill Museum, Fulton, Mo.

This top hat signed by Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin at the 1945 Yalta Conference is included in A ... read more

Churchill delivered the speech warning of the impending Cold War at Westminster College in 1946, after he had been voted out of office. A typewritten draft of the speech lines a gallery wall.

There’s also a telegram Churchill sent to the president of the college objecting to television coverage of his speech. “I deprecate complicating the occasion with technical experiments,” he wrote.

The speech was not televised but film clips of it are screened in the gallery.

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